Eastpointe director: Governor right to add $15 million

Eastpointe Director Ken Jones was pleased to hear this morning that Gov. Beverly Perdue had decided to restore $15 million in cuts to the mental health system.

"I am surprised," he said. "We didn't expect this. I think it is a good move."

Having just heard of the announcement, which was made late Tuesday afternoon, he said they had not received any details about how the funding will be distributed, but that it would offer some much-needed relief.

"Because the cuts the state made to mental health were so deep -- cuts to us and to our providers -- I think this $15 million is certainly going to help. These cuts were directly related to services and this will help us restore some of those services."

In particular, he hopes to be able to restore some of the services to the developmentally disabled population, which suffered some of the deepest state cuts.

But, he said, until the state lets them know how the money will be released, they'll continue with the plans they've made.

"It will be interesting to see how the money's distributed back into the community, but I expect Eastpointe will be in line for some of it," he said. "I'm very happy to hear this."